Deadline Looming for 2 Kidnapped Priests

(Compass Direct News) – Kidnappers have given Iraqi church leaders only 24 more hours to raise ransom money for the release of two priests, a church leader said today. Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa said that an independent source had confirmed the two priests, kidnapped last week, were alive. “Someone phoned somewhere and he affirmed to us that they are alive,” said the Mosul archbishop. Father Pius Affas, 68, and Father Mazen Ishoa, in his 30s, were abducted by unknown assailants on October 13 in Mosul. A source close to the archbishop said the kidnappers had demanded a $1 million ransom. “They gave us a 72-hour period to prepare the sum,” Casmoussa said today from Qaraqosh, a predominantly Syrian Catholic village 20 miles southeast of Mosul. “That period ends tomorrow.” The archbishop reiterated that the deadline did not mean the priests would be killed if the ransom were not immediately delivered.

For a more complete review of this story, please visit here on the Compass Direct website.